Mohammed Emwazi

Mohammed Emwazi (1988-) was a Kuwaiti-British militant jihadist who later became known as "Jihadi John" after carrying out a series of executions of Western hostages filmed and released on the internet during the Syrian Civil War. He became one of the images of the Islamic State, and his videos became a notorious internet sensation.

Biography
Mohammed Emwazi was born in 1988 in Kuwait, and he moved to West London, United Kingdom at the age of six, growing up in Britain. He became a radical Islamist after a planned safari in Tanzania, but Emwazi, a German convert, and a man named Abu Talib were arrested by the police in Dar-es-Salaam. He planned to go to Somalia to join al-Shabaab in the Somali Civil War, but he was prevented from doing so, and he later headed to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where MI5 questioned him. In late 2009, he returned to Britain, incensed at the way he was treated. He returned to Kuwait and worked for a computer company, and in June 2010 he was detained in London after two trips to Britain. Four months later, he wrote an e-mail that showed his admiration for female al-Qaeda member Aafia Siddiqui, and he became desperate to leave Britain. He failed to become a teacher of English in Saudi Arabia, and in 2012 he traveled to Syria to fight in the Syrian Civil War. Emwazi became a member of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and became a member of a cell of ISIS hostage-takers nicknamed "the Beatles" by the hostages. Starting in late 2014, he released many videos that depicted him beheading hostages, which started with the killing of American journalist James Foley. The videos then included Steven Sotloff, David Cawthorne Haines, Alan Henning, Peter Kassig, and Muaz al-Kasasbeh. The executions were put on the internet, and they became notorious images of ISIS' cruelty. The last video showed him having the Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot burnt to death, prompting Jordan to launch a bombing campaign against the Islamic State in both Iraq and Syria, and they assisted in the liberation of Mosul from early 2015 onwards. He was identified on The Washington Post on 26 February 2015, although the previous suspects were Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, Abu Hussain al-Britani, and Abu Abdullah al-Britani.